


Alive

by Baby_babushka



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Pain Train, Death Themes, F/M, Later Smut, Poetic, Relationship Evolution, Reylo - Freeform, Short Chapters, The Force Awakens, The Hut, explicit hand holding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-13 22:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14757146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baby_babushka/pseuds/Baby_babushka
Summary: Kylo Ren was dead when they first met.But now Ben Solo is alive.Poetic Reylo drabble, smut in later chapters.





	1. First: Death

He wasn’t alive when they first met. Yes, his body moved. Yes, his heart beat in his chest. But everything else, everything about him was as still as a corpse. His eyes were a bleary, dark color, his lips like old blood, and his skin a ghostly white. A broad, intimidating man, his movements the remaining electrical impulses of a dying brain.

An echo of humanity. Nothing more.

Dressed in a funerary shroud, masked in a casket of a mask, he stalked the stars, writing a dead name across a dark, glittering sky. One carved into her heart like a tombstone.

Kylo Ren. Jedi Killer. Son of Darkness.

 

When their paths first crossed, on the greenest planet Rey had ever seen, it was strange. A storm of a battle was raging in the distance, but the woods were warm and full of life. The trees creaked under a gentle breeze, and the wildlife sang around her.

Quiet.

With a mechanical scream, a purring hum, he had burst into her life, echoing her previous vision. It couldn’t be. The man in the mask. He was  _ real _ . A furrowed brow, and scrambling feet led to her frozen body under his claw-like hand. Eyes wide with fear, she stared into the dark chasm of where his should be.

His voice, deep and dark and rough, scratched against her ears. Perhaps she could have fooled herself into thinking he was more machine than man, but there was something there. Something human.

But not alive.

Falling under a spell of nearly death itself, collapsing into his morbidly stiff arms, she was carried by his corpse. 

 

Awakened in more ways than one, her body sprung back to life, held by a metal coffin. He bowed beneath her like soil rich from decay.

“Creature in a mask,” she had called him, as it had seemed fitting at the time. But then the dead man revealed his face. He removed the metal mask, showing her his dark, dim eyes and his gaunt yet full features.  _ He wasn’t what she expected _ .

“Don’t be afraid, I feel it too,” he had nearly whispered. Something in his eyes shifted, something in the twitch of his brow. Like one’s last breath. The moment passed with a numbing pain in her skull.

A moment. A bridge. The flashing of tears. How could it be? This man, this monster she had seen could not cry. Ignition. She screamed as Han fell under his son’s hand.

 

“You’re a monster,” she proclaimed in the snowy forest. The words felt right on her tongue, truth uttered from her blueing lips.

“It’s just us now,” his dead lips had said. Something was stirring in him. Something deep. Something hidden.

His movements were otherworldly as they dueled. He was a ghost, flourishing a crackling blade of blood across her field of vision. But he was wounded. How could it be? This dead man walking couldn’t bleed. Yet hot, dripping blood seeped from him, squelched as he punched his side, gritting his teeth. Pain. A dead man should not feel pain.

Sabers locked, at the edge of an opening canyon, something happened.

“You need a teacher,” Kylo said. The light of their lightsabers combined into a flashing purple, giving his skin the illusion of life. “I can show you the ways of the Force!” His eyes, stars, his eyes were churning, glinting with something  _ alive _ .

“The Force…” Rey whispered in revelation. Her eyes closed, feeling the snow dust her lashes. Ren faltered, his strength fading from him at the sight. She was beautiful, her soul merging with the Force, humming with  _ life _ .

With a push and a swing, she brandished him. Falling back into the freezing snow, he groaned in agony. Never had he felt such a reminder of his humanity, or what was left of it. His face, deathly pale, split under her blade, from collarbone to brow.

He should have given her a look of hatred, of rage. But as the chasm reopened, and she was swept away from him, all his eyes could muster was reverence. She breathed heavily, her breaths curling in the cold atmosphere before Rey sprinted away through the night.

Finally collapsing, feeling the darkness of unconsciousness ebbing at his mind, Kylo Ren almost felt alive. Because of  _ her _ .


	2. Second: In Between

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow the style changed real quick.

When Kylo Ren re-entered Rey’s life, after his defeat on a dying machine, everything changed. On the island from her dreams, rejected by Skywalker, Rey couldn’t be more puzzled. 

Luke was a legend, a myth of Jedi prowess and wisdom. Yet when she turned up on his damp doorstep, he slammed the door in her face. The legend she had looked up to was nothing more than a sulking husk of the man she thought he was. He claimed he was a failure, a failure to Ben Solo, the dead boy she never thought she would meet. 

This angered her, of course. Luke, never, Luke, no. Luke didn’t fail Kylo Ren. It was the other way around. Wasn’t it? No. That corpse of a monster betrayed his uncle. Not the other way around. Right?

But then something strange happened. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Rey came face to face with her enemy. It wasn’t possible. He shouldn’t have been sitting there, in front of her, looking as stunned as her.

Kylo Ren was in her goddamn hut. Sound faded away, leaving his heavy breaths echoing in her ears. Neither spoke. Her brow furrowed. His expression was all wrong. He shouldn’t have looked in awe. How dare he.

Pulling her blaster, she pulled the trigger, aiming at his chest. He jolted, and she expected a roar, or some sound of agony. Instead, his hair had fallen in his face, a look of shock and confusion written across his face. He looked down at himself, seeing that the blast had done nothing.

Faintly, the sound of crumbling bricks. Thoughts abandoning her, she ran. Out the hut, hurrying away on a dirt path carved by the Caretakers through the centuries. She felt a ripple, one she had felt before she had seen him.

Pausing, she turned, and met his gaze once more. Kylo’s cheeks were slightly flushed from exertion. Had he been running? Why?

“You will bring Luke Skywalker to me,” he had said, his deep, dark voice echoing through the channel between them. The influence behind his command fell on deaf ears as Rey seethed.

With each insult she threw, he only asked about their connection. He looked as if he were solving a logistical problem. How dare he.

“Just you,” he said softly. Something in his eyes, something was different. Could it be? 

The Force snapped like a string. Her brow furrowed.

It didn’t make sense. Why would the Force connect her with her enemy? A monster, a terrible, terrible man. No, not even that. He was as base as a sand rat. She felt the urge to spit at him. It didn’t make sense. His eyes should have been filled with hate, not wonder.

How dare he.

 

The next time she saw him, it was unexpected. Sheltering beneath the Millenium Falcon, she watched the waves crash, in awe of the abundance of life-giving water around her. The sounds were wrong. Sounds of sparks, machinery faded into an eerie silence. He faded into existence before her.

Her breath hitched at seeing him. She couldn’t decide why.

“Why is the Force connecting us? You and I.” Kylo said, looking as befuddled as her. But he seemed more comfortable, if that were the right word.

“Murderous snake!” she spat without a second thought. His expression hardened at her insult. “You’re too late, you lost! I found Skywalker!” she snapped with a vicious sense of victory. Rey breathed heavily. He looked away, looking almost thoughtful. 

“Did he tell you what happened?” he asked. Her brow furrowed. “The night I destroyed his temple, did he tell you why?” Why should it matter? And why should he care? He had no right. Did he? He slowly walked forwards, carefully, like a predator.

“I know everything I need to know about you,” she retorted, jutting her chin up at him. The light danced across his face as he inched closer.

“You do?” he asked as her chest heaved in barely contained anger. His chin dipped as his gaze intensified. She felt him brushing the edge of her mind. But she refused to let him in. She would hold her ground. “Ah, you do,” he said, his voice dropping to a rumble. She felt something move in her chest, and the ocean breeze didn’t feel chilly anymore.

“You have that look in your eyes. From the forest,” she couldn’t help but watch his throat bob as he spoke. His voice, his eyes, were too soft for his words. “When you called me a monster.” He looked solemn, defeated. Damn right he should.

“You  _ are _ a monster,” she said, but it came out as a loud whisper. Her voice was betraying her. Was it some trick of the Force? Was he doing something to her?

That dead bastard.

“Yes, I am,” he said in a hushed tone, only inches away. His face was etched with a sorrow and misery she had seen before, on hopeless fellow scavengers, hours away from running out of water.

She was taken aback, watching his eyes rove over her face as his lips quivered. Something was different. He was no longer the dead man she had encountered before. He was something in between.

In the blink of an eye, he was gone, replaced by a violent wave, sending cold spray across the bottom of her poncho.

She shivered as she felt something smooth and warm travel across her face. 

Across the galaxy, Kylo Ren clenched his wet fist.


End file.
